The Opposing Storm
by Shade Strife
Summary: A short following Rufus' thoughts on AVALANCHE, and the whole onflict in general. I do not own any of the characters; that honor goes to Square.


Rain poured down the windows of the office, making it impossible to see out. The steady drumming provided an undertone to the music playing quietly in the background. Occasionally there would be a flash of lightning accompanied by a low roll of thunder. Wind howled past outside, trying in vain to be heard by the man sitting at the desk, just inside the window.  
  
Rufus Shinra pointedly ignored the elements battling outside. They weren't disturbing him, so they were of no matter. He had bigger problems to deal with.  
  
Sephiroth was still on the loose. Everyday more reports came in of a soldier in a black trench coat with silver hair passing through some remote village or mountain range. The problem was that he seemed to be everywhere at once. Hojo dismissed that idea as foolishness, but Rufus wasn't so sure. This man, supposedly killed five years ago in a mako reactor in Mount Nibel, had come back from the dead to release the Jenova specimen from her holding place in the lab and turn her on the employees of the building. Anyone who had been in the lab, or on that floor, or on any of the floors above it for that matter, had all been found gored open or with broken necks. She had gone from the lab up to this office, leaving a trail of blood and destruction in her wake. There she had found the President. But she hadn't killed him. They found the man face down on his desk with the masamune sticking out of his back looking for the world like some horrid monument to Sephiroth's cruelty.  
  
Rufus had not felt any particular remorse over his father's death. They had never been close, and since the death of his mother several years ago, they had only grown farther apart. Rufus never could seem to agree with his father; their ideas on how to run things were too different. While his Father had preferred to buy peoples loyalty with money, Rufus liked fear. It had more or less the same results, but it didn't take large amounts of the Shinra treasury with it. So what if Scarlet and the others weren't as appreciative of him as they had been with his father. They may be in charge of the army, but he still had the Turks to dispose of them if he decided they were becoming a danger.  
  
The Dark Nation in front of his desk lifted its head and growled. Rufus didn't bother to look up. He could tell by the way that the man entered that it was Reeve. All the other employees, with the exception of Tseng, walked as though they were the only people in the world. Reeve tended to be quieter; standing to one side until he was needed. He was also a terrific actor and highly intelligent. These qualities had made him the perfect person to spy on Cloud.  
  
"Report, Reeve."  
  
Reeve shifted his position so that he could keep one eye on the growling creature at Rufus's feet. "So far so good. They've started to search for the keystone to the Temple of the Ancients. It shouldn't be too long before they find it."  
  
"Good. When they find it, delay them. I'll send in someone to retrieve it." Rufus flipped his bangs out of his face. "Any word on Sephiroth?"  
  
"None, other than the fact that he's headed in the same direction. Aries seems to think that he won't need to get the keystone to get in, so we don't have to worry about him beating us to it."  
  
"Is that all?"  
  
"More or less."  
  
"You may go," Rufus turned his chair to face the raging storm outside. He heard Reeve quietly go back down the stairs, leaving him alone to brood in silence once more.  
  
So Cloud was after the keystone. Normally the news would have annoyed him, but the idea of taking it from the mercenary the moment he thought he had won overpowered any annoyance. AVALANCHE had been a thorn in both his and his father's side from the very beginning. It hadn't been too bad as long as they had been nothing more than a small resistance group, but then they had gradually become bolder. Finally they attacked the No.1 reactor, destroying it and removing a healthy chunk of the surrounding neighborhood as well. Then the population had started to panic. Pressure had been put on his father to prevent anymore attacks. Though he had tried, he had failed. Despite extra security measures, AVALANCHE struck again, this time targeting the No.5 reactor. When he finally caught them and the Ancient, Sephiroth showed up and released them. After a daring escape involving two of Shinra's newest vehicles, they left Midgar and continued to make a problem of themselves all over the world. They had gained several new members, all with some problem or another with Shinra. The addition that had been particularly annoying was that of Cid Highwind, someone that Rufus knew would have been extremely useful to him. According to Reeve, there was also a materia thief and a gunman who could turn into horrific monsters at will. Hojo seemed rather vexed at the news of this last character. Hojo kept a lot of things to himself, but judging from the fact that this man could transform, Rufus had a feeling that another of Hojo's specimens was coming back to haunt him.  
  
Sooner or later he would have to find a way to deal with Cloud, at least. Without him it should be easier to pick off the others. What bothered him was the way the rest of the group followed Cloud. According to Reeve he never threatened, never paid, or never forced them to do anything. They were free to leave whenever they wanted. But yet they stayed.  
  
Part of it, he knew, came from the fact that they all wanted to do more or less the same thing. Some wanted to destroy Shinra, some wanted to kill him, and one was even after Hojo. The materia hunter had joined initially only to pilfer materia, but now even she seemed to harbor something against Shinra. They all, however, wanted Sephiroth dead. Was that what kept them going? Strong leadership and a common goal?  
  
Rufus stood and crossed the office to where a decanter of dark red wine sat on a small table. Unscrewing the top, he poured himself a glass and sipped it thoughtfully. His way of ruling was so different from the mercenary's that they might as well have been night and day. He depended on the fear he knew that his army and the Turks struck into people. The fear that if they stepped out of line they may come home to a burning home kept most people in line. Some of the bolder people had discovered that he wasn't quite that vicious, but most of them still kept a low profile. He had used fear as an ally for so long that the idea of another way of running things seemed rather startling. He had seen how devoted people could be to money, but that cost too much so he had quickly discarded that idea. Loyalty, though, was a different matter altogether. The only real fault he could find was that he believed a person's loyalty could be bought. Allegiances were always changing, but fear and money were constants.  
  
Satisfied with this answer, Rufus finished his wine. Walking back to his desk, he touched the buzzer for the intercom. "I want to see Tseng up here at once." Sitting back into his chair, he waited expectantly.  
  
Tseng was his usual prompt self. Within five minutes he was standing before the president's desk awaiting orders.  
  
"You called, Mr. President?"  
  
Rufus ran his fingers through his hair. "I want you to take a chopper to the area near the Gold Saucer. Reeve's mechanical toy should be there within the week with the keystone. He'll contact you and tell you where to meet him."  
  
Tseng nodded. "Should I take anyone?"  
  
Rufus leaned back. "Take Reno if you want. He's been getting bored, and I think I may need him sober some time in the near future. If he starts drinking now, he won't be coherent until sometime next month."  
  
The Turk nodded again. "He won't touch a thing." He turned to leave.  
  
"Oh, and Tseng?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"If you see him, tell Palmer that if he doesn't get his fat ass out of the building and onto the next flight to Rocket Town, he can be Dark's new chew toy," he said motioning at the ominously growling creature lying beside his desk.  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
After Tseng left Rufus went onto the platform outside his office. Ignoring the wind and rain, he stood at the edge, staring out at the greater part of Midgar. Neat rows of streetlights marked the avenues, stretching off for several miles before ending suddenly where the plate ended. To his left there was a gap in the lights; hundreds of feet below could be seen the sullen red glow of the melted steel from the collapsed plate that, even after all this time, refused to cool. Evenly spaced around the edge of the plate were the mako reactors; their faint green glow was bearly visible through the fury of the storm.  
  
This is Midgar. MY Midgar. The same as this is MY world. It doesn't matter how many people hate it, or how many decide to fight back. I'll still win.  
  
The chilling sound of his laugh was whipped away by the wind. Rufus grabbed the rail of the platform and leaned out over the edge. "C'mon Cloud!!!" he yelled, " Give it your best shot!!! My name is Rufus Shinra and not you, not AVALANCHE, not even Sephiroth himself can stop me!!!  
  
Over Midgar the storm clouds boiled and shifted, blacking out the rest of the sky. Rain and lightning poured from them in seemingly equal amounts while thunder sought to obliterate the senses with the help of the screaming wind. Yet for just a moment the clouds seemed to break, allowing a single star to show through to the suppressed city below.  
  
Across the ocean, at the edge of the Coral Mountains, two figures sat on watch some distance away from the embers of a dying campfire. A light breeze blew in from the coast, whispering around the campsite. The taller of the two men stared off in the direction of Midgar while at the same time talking to his smaller friend. "They say no one's ever seen him cry or bleed?"  
  
He caught the slight blue glow of his partner's eyes as they turned toward him. "Everybody bleeds and cries at some point. He's human, same as the rest of us. Sooner or later, he'll do both."  
  
Berret Wallace's eyes hardened as he stared off towards the city. "Right. We jus' have to be the ones to see him do it." 


End file.
